Yes, streaking !

At a quick glance at the overall standings the Hounds are second in the league with 45 points and 7 points behind the leading Mississauga Steelheads.

That may look fine and dandy but when you click on the winning percentage tab the Hounds drop pretty quickly to 6th overall with London, Barrie, Guelph, and Kingston ahead of them and all playing 4 less games with the exception of Barrie who have played 5 less than the Hounds.

What this means is that if those teams win only 50% of those games in hand; they will just keep that much further ahead of the Hounds.

There are talks around town that the Hounds are contenders and I really do think they are but they need to start showing dominance and get away from those ups and downs and close games against teams that are that much more inferior.

A team that boasts offensive prowess needs to start playing like one. Wins with three or more goals separating is what this team needs and a good London Knights style 7-0 or 8-0 ass kicking streak wouldn’t hurt.

If the defense can play their positions and not get caught up the ice, the Hounds should be in a good position to win.

Mentally playing in front of phantom fans is a challenge and don’t let any kid tell you otherwise. It will be John Dean and the rest of the coaching staffs responsibility to get these kids mentally up for the game tonight.

I hope Luc Brzustowski gets a game in over the homestand as this kid is a silent stay at home defenceman. He was playing exceptionally well before all the players returned from injury and the Jack Thompson trade that forced the numbers game to be played.

** As you may or may not know, I have been confused as to why the league has changed a good handful of start times for games that were on the regular schedule when issuing  media releases for postponed games due to C19 protocol etc. I got my answer via a phone call from Josh Sweetland of the CHL who advised that with no fans in the stands, some teams agreed to the time changes independently but had to be approved by the OHL and thus it was included in the media release.**

 

Tale of the Tape

SAGINAW SPIRIT

Coach Chris Lazary

GM Dave Drinkill

Record 14-9-1-0

 

Ways to success for Saginaw will be through Josh Bloom, Matyas Sapovaliv (rookie), Dean Loukus, and Nick Wong. Of note; the Spirit take chances on the PK and Josh Bloom leads the league with 6 shorties so the Hounds need to watch this.

In net it will be either Andrew Oke or Tristan Lennox as Lazary has been playing them about the same amount of games all year.

 

SOO GREYHOUNDS

Coach John Dean

GM Kyle Raftis

Record 21-12-2-1

 

Players that will make or break the game will be Rory Kerins, Cole MacKay, Ryan O’Rourke, and Tanner Dickinson. Tye Kartye is always in that group especially when the Hounds are on the power play. Staying out of the box is always crucial but if they do take some penalties; a continued strong effort on the PK will be important as the Hounds have turned a brutal penalty kill into a very good one since coming back from the Christmas break. Defenceman need to know their limits and if they can avoid being caught up the ice Tucker Tynan will have an easier time. I figure he gets the start and Sammy will start one of the other two games.

Go Hounds Go 

**If you follow my interviews via my YouTube channel; I have interviews with Bif Naked, Mark Kendall (Great White) and Bill Leverty (Firehouse) coming up and to be published starting Friday**